By quincy0191
Honorable Mention – Night Raid (NR), 14 points
Honorable Mention – Ride My Rocket (RmR), 17 points
Honorable Mention – Shrek is Love (Ogr), 32 points
8. Prime Icarus (PI), 45 points
PI are looking better and better. They’ve made it to Diamond twice in Season 3 so far, and for the first time they’ve managed to stick. An understandable 0-2 loss in the Round of 8 was followed by a 2-0 victory over Shrek is Love that will afford them better seeding in Cycle 7 (their two previous promotions resulted in a first round match vs. SynC) and perhaps a victory in their first series. The drafter/captain position has stabilized a bit with Znoowy taking the lead – at one point or another Shorkan and Slaskedyret both drafted, and sertas was a captain with Dawn – which should help. The addition of Teltook to the suicide role seems to have stuck as well, so with some questions answered PI could end up a surprisingly strong team.
7. REXXARS (KNX), 49 points
A bit of a mystery team right now, as captain cerenia and brand new suicide Xibbe both depart for the new Pokemon Crew, leaving RockyBalboa, BigArlong, and plictsit in need of new teammates. Reportedly they will continue playing, and as they have strong seeding for the playoffs as well as a spot in Diamond Division next cycle, that’s not particularly surprising. Though cerenia and Xibbe added a lot of talent, KNX had a strong roster throughout, and their position will mean adding players shouldn’t be a problem; ex-Dawn member YELLOWREXXAR could be a strong fit, especially since he already has experience as a member of KNX.
6. Bad Monkey Gaming (BMG), 62 points
This is not where BMG is used to hanging out. But they’ll have to get accustomed to being where they don’t expect to, because they’ve earned a trip to Gold with a loss to Nullstone Gaming in the Loser’s Bracket Round 1, the first time in HoN Tour history a team has been demoted and won a cycle in the same season. Evidently the loss was too much for some members to handle, and BMG is undergoing major roster changes yet again (marking the third time this season), with just Superkge and Haxxeren sticking around. As of a few days ago, they were still looking for players, so polish up that resume.
5. Pokemon Crew (PkMn), 76 points
The new Dawn squad, consisting of L4byr1nth, cerenia, probusk, Xibbe, and ICELANDGOGO, they’ve re-named and look pretty formidable. Taking some of the best players from Dawn and REXXARS and sticking them in the same team, along with a berth in Diamond for Cycle 7, could result in a serious first-round challenge to willowkeeper. They will still have to work through some new team issues, though they’ve now been together for weeks due to the holiday break, and it’s possible the addition of cerenia could create some issues with leadership as there are now two captains on one team. But that generally hasn’t been a problem before, and in all likelihood L4byr1nth will be able to guide his team to a higher seed for Diamond Cycle 8 and a legitimate shot at heading to Thailand.
4. Nullstone Gaming (Null), 105 points
There’s a big jump from fifth place to fourth place, with Nullstone picking up thirty points over PkMn, and their lowest placement on any list being fifth. They’ve secured their position as one of the best teams in HoN, and in Cycle 6 were facing demotion to Gold. That’s how tight things are at the top. But they managed to overcome BMG in the first round of the Loser’s Bracket, then get past REXXARS in the second round before bowing out in fourth place. If they can figure out a way to beat Reason, who was responsible for both their series losses in Cycle 6, they could end up in the Grand Finals again.
3. Reason Gaming (Rea), 106 points
Speaking of Reason, they’ve once again barely edged Nullstone, beating them by a single point. Rea had the comeback of the season – after dropping to Gold, it seems like something has clicked. The common refrain is that ImbaBoy learned how to draft – and that certainly appears accurate – but it wouldn’t be surprising if some tune-up games against lesser competition gave them a boost of confidence needed to realize they’re pretty good at this. An early 2-0 of Null was followed up by a Winner’s Bracket Semifinals loss to tree, who also knocked them out in the Loser’s Finals, but both series were very competitive and Reason could easily have found themselves in the Winner’s Finals and/or Grand Finals. Or they could have dropped games to Null and finished in 5/6th place, maybe even be demoted again. Reason are definitely stronger than they were, though, and perhaps closer to the top than ever.
2. willowkeeper (tree), 120 points
The perennial runners-up and winners of the Best Newcomer award for 2024, tree have got to figure out how to beat SynC. That’s really the only objective left for them; in 14 games against the top dogs, they’re 2-12. They’re even or better against every other team they’ve played in Season 3, but they keep coming up against the big dogs in the Winner’s Bracket Finals or Grand Finals and falling short. They continue to allay doubts about their ability, with another strong overall performance, and the more space they put between them and their 5/6th place Cycle 4 finish the easier it is to rate them highly. At this point, there’s only one step to take.
1. SynC eSports (SynC), 140 points
Was there any other possible outcome? SynC sweeps the first place votes yet again, because there’s no indication they have a reasonable challenger. Earlier in HTS3 they were losing tighter games, and of course there was the solitary time they lost a cycle. But they looked utterly unbeatable in Cycle 6, and dispatched their opponents 2-0 in every series except one, a weird loss to KNX. It’s easy to write that off as an isolated incident, though, considering how they looked against tree. Everyone knows SynC is the team to beat, but before they occasionally looked beatable. At this point they’ve more or less secured the top seed and a direct ticket to Thailand for the World Finals, but it seems like they’ll hang around and beat everyone else for a couple more weeks just because they can.
quincy0191 is a HoN veteran with a focus on the numbers. Fascinated by quantifying and valuing human beings, he shunned the world of finance in favor of sports and competition. When not on Honcast you can find quincy playing games like Civilization and Pokemon, or watching movies, writing, pondering, or catching a game of baseball.
